To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

Fully understand your reasoning...the world is increasingly an upside down place, and the old rules often don't apply.

However, as others have said, it's far from the end of the line. There's a great world still out there (you just have to look a little harder for it), and lots of great people willing to help.

My bet is that when you come down the East River past Manhattan with a full tidal current behind you (I made something like 13-14 knots doing this), it's gonna be so exhilirating that you'll have an epiphany and begin to consider your new life...even before reaching the anchorage in Sandy Hook.

Best of luck to you. I often go by Cobb Island enroute to/from the Chesapeake. Look for s/v Born Free.

By the way, unless you've got some kind of a special deal at Cobb Island, slips are cheaper across the river in the Northern Neck of VA. A real bargain, actually :-)

Thanks for the encouraging words Bill . I've sort of already had the epiphany you speak of . Now I just have to pull it off . I have been debating a logic issue in my mind . Given my time away from the endeavor I wonder if an offshore route might be a safer option for me . My logic being a route through inland waters & along the coast will have obstacles to negotiate . My thinking being deep open water might be safe water ? Can't stop weighing options . In any case....would it do me any good to try raising the Born Free on VHF ever when I get in the river ??? Right now I just wish I was already starting .....the waiting & anticipation are the worst part . Stuck where I am til the last half of Oct. unless something changes . Mostly setting up the small company I own to where it can be run from a remote location & rearranging the structure on paper to preclude any legal problems there . Turns out you only own something in this country til some foreigner & lawyers decide they want it . Anyway....thanks again for your kind sentiments.....maybe meet you somewhere down the trail .

Well, VHF probably won't do it...range of only 25 miles or so, and it's some 50 miles from DC to Cobb Island! But, you can reach me on the land line; send me an email and I'll give you the info: bill at wdsg dot com

RE: going offshore, I have a couple of thoughts. How are you gonna navigate? Do you have GPS? A chartplotter? What kind?

I have already done the trip from the Canal to DC several times, and have plotted waypoints along the way. I lay out my waypoints so that they are safe to follow in any weather -- no danger of running into things!

There are 30 waypoints along this route; I can easily email you the lat/long, bearings, and distances for this and/or other routes along your track if you like.

If the weather forecast is good, it might be best to do a direct shot from, e.g., Block Island to Cape May, then up the Delaware River to the C&D Canal and the Chesapeake Bay. The direct-line distance from Block Island to Cape May is about 240 miles. If you anticipate contrary winds from a southerly direction -- and these are prevalent in summertime -- you might want to follow a track closer to the NJ coast where you could duck into, e.g., Sandy Hook, Manasquan, Barnegat Bay, Atlantic City, or Cape May if need be.

Thanks Bill ,
Presently I have begun the land part of my escape . Departed Hell at 0200 hours Wed. am . Almost to Chicago but have to stop in Michigan for a few days before pushing on to New Bedford . By the time I get there I may need a route for the blind & stupid . Looking forward to just sitting on the boat a couple days getting ready before departing . Thanks again all & I'll stay in touch as things get critical mass in this endeavor

The key to any trip is planning. I sail the central Chesapeake Bay and can only comment that October/November can be the best time to sail OR it can be the worst. Weather changes fast that time of year.

Joe McCary,
Sailing on The Central Chesapeake Bay, West River, MD on my Catalina 27, Aelous II with my wife and friends.
Sailing Blog: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Well...so much for planning . Got as far as Mich . & had to go to Louisiana to help an elderly sister with Hurricane Gustov.....then to Freeport TX to help an elderly brother with hurricane Ike . I guess a person will sometimes do for others what they can't do for themselves . Starting to wonder if I'll be making trip to Cobb Island in the snow .

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.